September 21st, 2021: Fixed a compatibility issue with GP Inventory.
July 21st, 2021: Added support for bypassing Limit Submissions feeds when an entry is being edited.
April 8th, 2021: Migrated to Snippet Library. Added support for deleting Partial Entries.
This article requires the GP Easy Passthrough perk. Buy Gravity Perks today to get this perk plus 36 other premium Gravity Forms plugins!
Overview
If you have ever filled out a form anywhere on the web, you’ve probably wanted an easy way to edit the entry. It’s easy to skip a field, typo a postal code, or worse. Have you ever submitted a form with your own name misspelled? I have. It’s embarrassing.
The most common reason most forms don’t offer an edit option is that it’s complicated. Forms are typically designed for a simple task: capture user input one time. They often lack the capability to retrieve a previous entry, let alone make edits to that entry.
We’re going to show you an easy way to add that capability to any of your Gravity Forms with GF Easy Passthrough.
Using the Snippet
Prerequisites
Confirm that you have Gravity Forms and Easy Passthrough installed and activated and that you’ve installed the snippet.
Step 1 – Set Up an Easy Passthrough Feed
Navigate to the form’s Settings and click on Easy Passthrough to set up an Easy Passthrough feed.
Set the form as its own Source Form. All of the standard fields will automatically map because the source form and target form are the same form.
Step 2 – Configure the Snippet
Gravity Forms doesn’t include a built-in way to edit entries on the front end. This simple snippet will grab the last submitted entry ID (via Easy Passthrough) and use that to update the entry when the form is submitted.
To use it, update the form_id to your form’s ID.
new GPEP_Edit_Entry( array(
'form_id' => 179, // Set this to the form ID
'delete_partial' => false, // Set this to true to delete partial entries if enabled
) );The snippet supports Partial Entries. Set delete_partial to true to automatically delete any lingering partial entries when the updated entry is submitted.
Limit Submissions Integration
This snippet integrates with GF Limit Submissions to automatically bypass feeds when editing an entry. This is useful in a variety of scenarios, such as:
- An art contest where a user can only submit a single piece, but is allowed to edit it until the submission deadline.
- Adoption applications in which the user can apply to adopt up to 2 animals and can update their application at any time.
- Community-center classifieds where the user can list up to 3 items, but can update their listings until the items are sold.
Wrapping Up
If a visitor submits a form and navigates back to the form, Easy Passthrough will automatically pre-populate all of the form’s fields with the previous entry. Then, thanks to the snippet, the existing entry will be updated instead of creating a new entry.
Easy Passthrough uses a session cookie to pass data from one form to another. If that cookie is expired, it will not pass any data.
Help Us Take it Further
This is designed to work as simply as possible but there is a lot we could do from here. Tell us how you’d want to use this. We’ll collect your feedback and improve the functionality over time.
Did this resource help you do something awesome with Gravity Forms? Then you'll absolutely love Gravity Perks; a suite of 35+ essential add-ons for Gravity Forms with support you can count on.
How can I do this with nested forms? do I have to add another new GPEP_Edit_Entry line in the snippet for another form?
Hi Addy,
The tutorial should work when editing the entry using a Parent form. Nested entries cannot be edited individually.
If you have an active Gravity Perks License, you can get in touch with us via our support form with your account email address and we’ll be happy to dig into this further.
Best,
I have to build a site with a lino cpmp[,icated form – the user needs to be able to save or submit the form and then come back and edit the details and keep adding to the form – keeping all the previous data in the form – they might also need to edit it a year later
can your plugin and gravity forms do this?
Hi Paul,
With the EP Token, the user should be able to keep adding data to the form and also keep previously saved data as many times as needed.
If you have an active Gravity Perks License, you can get in touch with us via our support form with your account email address and we’ll be happy to dig into this further.
Cheers,
How do I use this technique to edit entries that have a no duplicate fields. Currently I get this error: This field requires a unique entry …
I need there to be no duplicates but I also want the editing to happen if ep token was used.
Please Help, Jimmy
Hi Jimmy,
This will definitely require some custom coding, that will check if the Form is being edited or not to determine whether to disable the “No Duplicate” setting on the field. If you have an active Gravity Perks License, you can get in touch with us via our support form with your account email address, and we’ll be happy to assist you.
Best,
Hi Samuel,
Thanks for replying. Sorry, I wasn’t clear enough in my first comment.
At the moment, i have ticked the ‘Use logged in user’s last submitted entry’. During a session, if the user scrolls back and changes the form, the revised form is populated with the previous logged-in data. If the user logs out, logs back in, the newest data is populated. It seems to only show the most recent changes to the form by logging in and logging out.
Ideally I want to show the last submitted entry – either during a session or upon logging back in.
So close to being exactly what i need! any help appreciated.
Simon
Hi Simon, When the ‘Use logged in user’s last submitted entry’ option is enabled the form will always show the values from the last submitted entries without the user having to log out and log in. If it isn’t working for you that way, then there may be something else at play here. You may want to run a conflict test to check if it’s a conflict-related issue. In case it still doesn’t work and you have an active Gravity Perks license, you can get in touch with your account email address via our support form so we dig into this further.
Best,
Works great. One question. I have this working really except for the following Outcome – I want the edit entry functionality – if user logs in our out, the last entry info is prepopulated
It seems i can have both of the above. If i use the “Use logged in user’s last submitted entry” then during the session, it whipes entered info with the previous logged in submitted data – if i un check this, then a returning user does get the prepoulated information
Seems so close. Any help appreciated.
Cheers, Simon
Hi Simon,
If you want non-logged-in users to be able to edit their entries, then you’ll have to use EP Token to prepopulate the form fields for non logged in users. The EP Token will be appended to the URL of the page with the form and that will prepopulate the form fields with the data submitted by the user previously.